1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer systems in general and, more particularly, to a pair of transceiver chips for transmitting serialized data, and receiving and deserializing data at a remote location while simultaneously transmitting serialized feedback control data including control feedback data for modifying the transmission properties of the multiple serial transmission lines between the transceivers.
2. Description of Related Art
As information technology becomes more multimedia intensive, additional bandwidth between remote locations becomes a necessity instead of a luxury. One of the problems well known in the art is that of clock skew which occurs when a clock signal travels long distances by multiple routes. Small variations in the distance of travel lead to a delay in when the clock signals arrive at their respective destinations. A related problem to clock skew is data skew. As data are transmitted at higher frequencies and over longer distances, data bits which should be clocked together become separated in time.
Prior art solutions to the problems of clock skew and data skew include placing strict limits on routing distances and placing tighter limitations on clock pulse generation. Limiting routing distances may include strict quality controls on differential line lengths in cables or signal traces on motherboards, often using "meanders" to lengthen traces which are too short. Clock generation chips may be made to stringent guidelines to ensure a lack ofjitter which often propagates into increased skew. Both solutions burden the system with increased expense. It would be desirable to have a system of data transmission which allows for inexpensive control of data skew in high bandwidth data transmissions.
A system is therefore needed which is inexpensive to build yet provides a high bandwidth with a minimum number of data lines, pins and other connections. For ease of integration into legacy systems, this enhanced system should be manufacturable as a single (pair) chip solution, preferably in CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) and not more expensive semiconductor technologies such as GaAs (gallium arsenide) or BiCMOS (Bipolar CMOS).